How important is color management in banners and signs for live events?
Color has an innate ability to influence decisions, communicate nonverbal messages and create atmospheres. Color has a psychological effect on us. It can elicit the type of response live event organizers are after.
Creative directors, designers, and marketers spend countless hours working on banners and signs to project the right brand image during live events. As experts of color psychology, their work often involves carefully selecting colors.
Therefore, it is imperative to know the importance of color and color management.
What is Color Management?
Cambridgeincolor.com defines color management as:
“…a process where the color characteristics for every device in the imaging chain is known precisely and utilized in color reproduction.”
What does this mean?
In its simplest terms, color management connects to color accuracy. It centers on the idea of controlled conversion so that colors are transmitted with as much fidelity as possible between various print and digital media.
Now that we know what color management is. Let us examine why it is so critical for live events.
Top 6 Reasons Color Management is Key in Banners and Signs for Live Events
Reason #1 Reduces psychological distance
Psychological distance is the degree to which someone is emotionally removed from an event. It has little to do necessarily with the physical surroundings of the person.
It is an abstract concept coined by Trope and Liberman that has been studied in-depth. The research shows that psychological distance can determine whether or not a person values what you are presenting.
So how can creative directors overcome or mitigate this psychological distance during live events?
Firstly, by relying on the effective use of color impact. And secondly, by making sure that chosen colors transmit across print and digital media.
Reason # 2 Boosts emotional involvement
In an article titled Color Psychology: How Do Colors Affect Mood and Emotions? The London Image Institute makes it clear that color can trigger consumer emotions. That subsequently boosts their involvement with a brand.
What does this tell us about color management?
It is a waste if you spend so much time choosing colors. And it does not convert to banners and signs for live events.
Reason #3 Increases consumer empathy
Are you hosting a live event of a charitable nature that requires evoking empathy? A fundraising gala, an auction, or sponsored sporting event?
Color can encourage philanthropic action while intensifying a sense of well-being.
Color’s role in evoking feeling and capturing attention was the selling point for the pioneers of color television in the early 60s. Author of Bright Signals: A History of Color Television, associate professor of Media, Culture, and Communications at New York University, Susan Murray writes:
“Color…created a more receptive consumer for advertisers at a time when color had become essential to the design, economics, and planned obsolescence of goods and appliances.”
Color management is simply fundamental if you wish to make the best use of color psychology during live events.
Reason #4 Heightens consumer comprehension
How does color affect our understanding of situations and subject matters?
The impact of color goes beyond its effect on our mood and emotions. It can also dictate how well we grasp concepts and retain information.
Think of the color schemes of most TED conferences seminars. Black, red, and white. Black for formality, red for energy, and white for simplicity.
Scientific studies show that color does help people increase their attention levels. That enables the information to store in short and long-term memory.
What does this mean for live event organizers?
If you’re hosting seminars, conferences, trade shows, or workshops that require attendees to consume large quantities of information, then you’ll want to pay attention to color management.
Reason #5 Awakens consumer creativity
Did you know that color affects our mental performance? Yes, with blue being the hue that boosts creativity the most.
Trying to settle an age-long debate between psychologists and marketers, studies were undertaken to try and establish whether or not colors can improve brain performance and receptivity to advertising.
The tones under study were red and blue. Both were effective, but their success was the message.
Red, for example, was a color that’s ideal for increasing our awareness of detail. Blue was demonstrated as the color to settle for if you want people to think creatively, see a brand as competent, loyal, and trustworthy.
That is of great interest, of course, to live event creative directors designing signs and banners.
Reason #6 Taps into our visual nature
We are 90% visual beings, meaning 90% of the information our brains absorb is visual. Research
by 3M Corporation shows that we process visuals 60,000 times faster than text.
What does this mean?
Brands only have 7 seconds to make their first impression on a consumer. Color is critical in this. The colors must be accurate. You do not want to throw people off with dull, faded, poorly converted colors.
You can avoid this by paying extra care with color management.
Conclusion
So, we have seen that color is critical in the preparation of advertising materials for live events. And that you only get a guarantee on color accuracy with a thorough application of the principles of color management.
Color management is vital because it has the unique ability to shift the way people engage with a brand during live events. Color management can even help event-goers understand their relationship to brands in a whole new light.
So, it is not always possible to get 100% color consistency. There are things creative directors can do. By following color management best practices, printers and event organizers can get near perfect color translation.
If you would like to learn more about the importance of color in advertising, be sure to read How Color Quality Affects In-Store Advertising.